Campos is adulterer, not criminal, defense attorney says

Former Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce CEO Jeffrey Campos is an adulterer who made a bad choice, defense lawyer Gary Lozow told a jury this morning, but “don’t brand him a criminal.”

Sending the jury off to deliberate three-and-a-half days of testimony in Campos’ misdemeanor assault trial, Lozow acknowledged the 56-year-old might not have been the smartest individual getting involved with real estate broker Jennifer Reins.

“But you’ve made your bed and now you have to sleep in it,” Lozow said. “This really was a mess.”
However, allegations that Campos assaulted Reins during their messy break-up last July “are simply untrue” and that Campos’ defense was a necessity.

“If you sit silent, the system doesn’t take care of you,” Lozow told jurors in closing arguments.

Lead prosecutor Simone Montoya, though, theorized that Campos, “a man with great power and a man with great influence,” told a different story to jurors simply to “manipulate” them.

“He manipulated his wife into believing he was a loving husband; he manipulated Ms. Reins into believing he wanted a relationship,” Montoya said in her closing argument. “His manipulations were catching up to him.”

Campos is accused of assaulting Reins as the two argued in his car for several hours downtown. Reins said Campos “just snapped” during her efforts to gain an explanation for ending their relationship and grabbed her arms and choked her during a crazed moment.

Campos says it was Reins who flailed at him, a woman scorned and distraught over the end of their intimacy that had endured for at least nine months. Though he testified to grabbing Reins’ wrists during their argument, it was to defend himself against her aggression.

Lozow managed to get testimony admitted from two of Reins’ former boyfriends, one of them the father of their twin daughters, who said Reins had a violent streak.

“She’s a very violent and scary person,” said Michael Turner, who has custody of the 14-year-old twins.

Lozow also asked Denver County Judge Doris Burd to render an acquittal based on the evidence, but it was denied.

He told jurors that Reins’ intent of holding onto a “sugar daddy” was derailed when Campos came to terms with his infidelity.

“She overlooked a 26-year marriage and the effort to keep his family together,” Lozow said. “He was a man in a bad relationship and the consequences were profound. Mark off that he’s guilty of infidelity; mark off his misrepresenting facts to his wife and his mistress; check off that he was enamored to a fatal attraction.”

Pausing for a moment, Lozow finished his case: “But don’t brand him a criminal. He’s not.”

I think adultery is still a crimes according to Colorado law, even though not a single case has been prosecuted since the law was passed. Like many outdated laws the legislature is too divided or too damned lazy to repeal them.

David joined The Denver Post in 1999, his second go-round in the Mile High City. Since then he’s covered a variety of topics – from human services to consumer affairs – most always with an investigative bent. Currently he does investigations and banking.